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Angie Drobnic Holan
12/12/13
Lie of the Year: 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it'
Quote:
It was a catchy political pitch and a chance to calm nerves
about his dramatic and complicated plan to bring historic change to
America’s health insurance system.
"If you like your health care plan, you can keep it," President Barack Obama said
-- many times -- of his landmark new law.
But the promise was impossible to keep. So this fall, as cancellation
letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans,
the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong.
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This is an interesting article in that it goes back to 2009 and discusses
the "truthiness" of the ACA from several points of view.
But when something is called a "LIE", I take it to mean that the person knew,
or should have known, that the statement was false, and deliberately intended
to mislead the audience.
In all of this article, anything like such a definition is not presented.
Instead, the entire history of the Obama's phrase seems to be portrayed
along the lines of an advertising slogan.
What should Obama have said ? It would probably have been something like...
Quote:
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'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it. But we are raising the standards of health care coverage by private insurance companies. If your own health care company makes it's own business decision that they do not current meet these standards, or in the future they do not plan to meet these new standards, they will have to cancel your coverage. They will notify you that your current coverage will not be extended or offered after January 1, 2014. But they will send you a cancellation notice in time for you to either sign up for a new policy that does meet the new standards, or you can sign up for a new policy offered by other companies, or in some states that have expanded Medicare, you can sign up for coverage by the US government. On the other hand, if your health care insurance is through your employer, your employer may decide to change your coverage and that will be your employer's decision as a business decision for what is best for the company or corporation.
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Somehow, all that doesn't quite fit into a sound bite or work as an advertising banner or slogan.
By my definition I don't see the furor as a "LIE".
But then in politics, "rape" means "legal rape" and "lie" means "deliberate lie"